Oakland

Woman Claims She Was Sexually Harassed While Working at Popular Oakland Business ‘Oaklandish'

A former employee of the popular East Bay T-shirt shop Oaklandish has filed a lawsuit saying she was the victim of repeated sexual harassment.

Raisa Yavney filed the lawsuit against the Oakland company, claiming harassment, retaliation and negligence. She claims several coworkers made repeated unwanted sexual advances and commonly used homophobic slurs, even after she asked them to stop.

"It wasn't taken seriously because that's kind of was just how it is," Yavney said.

Yavney, who self identifies as queer, said she reported the harassment to her boss several times. Her boss later encouraged the so-called ring leader to apologize privately, Yavney said.

"He responded. 'That's just how it is around here,'" Yavney said.

Yavney quit soon after and now is hoping her case will help other employees at the company she used to love.

"I'm hoping this will be sort of a wake up call for them," Yavney said.

A trial date has been set for February.

Several attempts to reach out to Oaklandish for comment were not returned.

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